Tuesday Technique: Skewer It

Can you believe it? I am actually back today. Not only that, but I now have a fun blog header (check it out!) and this is my fourth blog post in five days. Whoa! I hardly recognize myself! :)

This is my first Tuesday post of 2012. If you remember way back to yesterday, I outlined my weekday blogging plan, which included sharing a tip or technique on Tuesdays. Enter National Skewer Day (I just made that up in case any of you are running off to Google it)...

Wooden skewers are my new go-to supply. "Why?" you might ask. Well, flags are one of the current popular trends in scrapbooking. Several manufacturers are producing pre-made flags with toothpicks, like October Afternoon's Little Flyers (Farmhouse collection shown here):

or these Toothpick Flags from Pebbles (With Love collection shown here):

 

I've also seen several layouts using stick pins in place of toothpicks, which looks pretty cool (I jumped on board that trend as well). 

While I love using small flags, sometimes I crave an embellishment on a grander scale. I happened to be pondering this last summer...when we were grilling a lot of shrimp...on skewers...which led to my first use of giant flags:

Supplies: Cardstock (Bazzill Basics) + Patterned Paper (October Afternoon) + Chipboard (American Crafts) + Tin Pin (October Afternoon) + Spray Ink (October Afternoon) + Baker's Twine (Divine Twine) + Skewers

 

I created the flags by cutting strips of patterned paper, notching the ends, and then wrapping the straight sides of the flags around the skewers and gluing them in place. I cut the pointed tips off of the skewers with my sharp craft scissors and also used my scissors to trim the skewers to different lengths. Once made and tied together into a simple bouquet, the flags made for a fun summertime embellishment on this layout. 

I returned to this technique a few months later with a layout that made it into my top ten layouts of 2011:

Supplies: Cardstock (Bazzill Basics) + Patterned Paper (October Afternoon) + Stickers (October Afternoon) + Baker's Twine (Divine Twine) + Fonts (Typenoksidi, Lobster 1.4) + Skewers

On this layout I used the skewers with premade flag sticker embellishments (the Little Flyers referenced above - these are from October Afternoon's Sidewalks collection). I will admit that it does take a little bit of manipulation and a lot of glue dots to get the flag bouquet just right, but it doesn't take more than 5-10 minutes total. 

I recently went mid-length with skewers (halfway between tree and toothpick) on this birthday card:

Supplies: Cardstock (Bazzill Basics) + Patterned Paper (Echo Park) + Stickers (Echo Park) + Baker's Twine (Divine Twine) + Skewers

Now I am (not-so-) patiently waiting for the manufacturers to get on board with my trend so that I can stop raiding my kitchen for embellishments! :) A girl can hope, right? (Or maybe there's a company I don't know of already doing this? If so, let me know!)

If you create anything with skewers, link me up! I'd love to see whatever you do!